Obama Facing the Arab Spring

Support for democratic transitions, promises of economic aid, calls for Israeli-Palestinian peace … Two years after the Cairo speech, the president of the United States revives U.S. policy in the Middle East and North Africa.

Half an hour late due to a few last minute questions, President Barack Obama appeared at noon in the conference hall of the State Department in Washington, D.C. on May 19, 2011, to deliver his speech on the Middle East and North Africa. Five months after the beginning of the Arab revolutions, two weeks after the killing of Osama bin Laden and with the possibility of a unilateral Palestinian declaration of independence, the public eagerly awaited the U.S. president’s position on recent developments.

With his renowned rhetoric from his days as a lawyer, Obama paid a glowing tribute to the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutionaries, warned intransigent autocrats, promised a major economic commitment from the United States and called for the resumption of peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians. Regarding the latter, the president proposed the recognition of a Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.

In his Cairo speech of June 2009, Obama intended to give a fresh start to the United States’ relationship with Islamic countries. Two years later, his speech in Washington still aimed to open “a new chapter in American diplomacy.” According to the president, such diplomacy would be more humble, more attentive to the people and less indulgent toward authoritarian regimes.

Criticized for his timidity before the first tremors in the Tunisian and Egyptian streets, the American president put himself firmly on the side of protesters against the “tyranny of governments that deny their citizens dignity.”

But this support for democratic aspirations must not be equated with the desire to export the American model. “Not every country will follow our particular form of representative democracy,” Obama announced. Seeming to address, without naming them, the Islamist parties who are gaining ground on the political scene in Egypt and Tunisia, he added, “America respects the right of all peaceful and law-abiding voices to be heard, even if we disagree with them. … We look forward to working with all who embrace genuine and inclusive democracy.”

President Obama’s speech strongly condemned radical Islamism, identifying the removal of its most famous icon with the decline of the movement. He asserted, “By the time we found bin Laden, al-Qaida’s agenda had come to be seen by the vast majority of the region as a dead end, and the people of the Middle East and North Africa had taken their future into their own hands.” Obama also denounced the religious sectarianism threatening Egypt, Syria and Bahrain, remarking, “Coptic Christians must have the right to worship freely in Cairo, just as Shia must never have their mosques destroyed in Bahrain.”

Iranian Hypocrisy

Obama, taking into account the revolutionary eruptions and underlying trends in the Arab world, defined three priorities to guide U.S. policy in the region: democracy, development and peace in the Middle East.

U.S. policy promotes reform and supports democratic transitions. Early in the president’s speech, he warns autocrats: “Two leaders have stepped aside [Tunisian President Ben Ali and Egyptian President Mubarak]. Others may follow.”

Obama first targets Moammar Gadhafi, who will “inevitably leave or be forced from power.” Less severe with respect to Bashar al-Assad, Obama advises the Syrian president to “lead that transition or get out of the way.” The U.S. president also denounces “the hypocrisy of the Iranian regime, which says it stand for the rights of protesters abroad, yet represses its own people at home.”

Of Bahrain, a close ally of the United States, where Shia protests are subject to violent repression, Obama says, “The government must create the conditions for dialogue, and the opposition must participate to forge a just future for all Bahrainis.” President Obama adds that in Yemen, another U.S. ally, “President Saleh needs to follow through on his commitment to transfer power.”

Eternal Conflict

The challenge is also economic: Peace cannot be achieved without development. The U.S. president’s comments on that matter are directed at the G8 meeting in Deauville, France to which Egypt and Tunisia have been invited. Obama pledges substantial financial assistance. Cairo will thus receive $1 billion in debt forgiveness and is guaranteed the same amount in loans to promote infrastructure and employment. In Tunisia and Egypt, investment funds will total $2 billion, and the U.S. will launch a “comprehensive Trade and Investment Partnership Initiative.”

President Obama devotes the speech’s conclusion to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, a delicate matter with the reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas and the upcoming White House visit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This conclusion makes the most revolutionary statement of the speech. The U.S. president declares that “the borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines,” and finally argues for the existence of a sovereign, but unarmed, Palestinian state, for which Barack Obama attracts criticism from some of the Arab public.